Marshall McLuhan

For those who don't know him, or think they've heard the name before, Marshall McLuhan is world famous for his views on media and how they function and affect society. (for detailed biography, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Mcluhan

Saw a documentary about him yesterday and he says very interesting stuff about media and how it's affecting our way of life. In a sense, the human race is in a shock but doesn't know it. Think of all that's happened in the last 50 years. We don't realize how much human life has changed because we're in the middle of this mediatic/technologic revolution and don't really know what to do about it. The present has become too scary to think about.

also, his famous claim that "the medium is the message" has never been so true. It's not whatever is on TV, or in newspapers that matters. The bigger impact is the fact that we now have access to these tools . How did this affect our lifestyles ? In a sense, all these discoveries, is, as he puts it, "an extension of ourselves". He has very interesting insight about how we are progressively moving our nervous system outside of our body.

The world has become a very big city where everything is connected and nothing is exclusive anymore. Every piece of information is available to anyone anywhere at the same time. This is leading to increasing uniformity and therefore an unnoticed state of shock.

For more about M. McLuhan , check out this website : http://www.mcluhan.ca
It's very interesting stuff.

By the way, he's the philosopher that makes a cameo in Woody Allen's Annie hall at the movie theatre....